


Lake LBJ

by Mousek



Category: Red White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston
Genre: Canon Compliant, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:47:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28232655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mousek/pseuds/Mousek
Summary: What happens when Pez comes to the lake.
Relationships: June Claremont-Diaz/Nora Holleran/Percy "Pez" Okonjo
Comments: 6
Kudos: 38
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	Lake LBJ

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SunriseMagpie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunriseMagpie/gifts).



It’s nighttime on Lake LBJ, and at some point a few hours ago, Pez, June, and Nora had retreated into June’s bedroom as Henry and Alex moved into Alex’s. They were a squad, yes. But over the course of a weeklong vacation, sometimes you just want to spend a night with your dates. 

So, for the past two hours, the three of them had been playing drinking-Minecraft — an invention of Nora’s where you take a shot every time you die. Unsurprisingly, June got drunk faster than either of the others, so she had retreated to the safety of their farm, where she was attempting to build a replica of the lakehouse. Nora had been drawn into her mission, and that left Pez as the only one going out to collect resources, get killed by zombies, and slowly drain their alcohol.

Finally, June closed her laptop with a sharp snap, relatively sober by this point. “My eyes are starting to feel weird and we’ve been sitting inside for a few hours. We’re at a lake. We can do this anywhere.”

Pez followed. “We could, honestly, do this while we’re not even in the same place.”

“Let’s go outside,” Nora suggested. “Go skinny dipping. It’s late and there’s a full moon, that’s perfect.”

The crickets were enthusiastically chirping that night. As they wove through the trees down to the lake, Nora walked in the middle, Pez and June on either side. June had an arm slung around her shoulder, and Pez was holding her hand. The full moon shining through the leaves created a pattern of shadows on the ground, constantly in motion as the wind shook the branches overhead.

As they exited the path to the lakeshore, two things happened. 

First: unprotected by the trees, the night breeze started to chill them, whipping their hair into their faces.

Second: they saw Henry shoving Alex off the dock into the lake, both fully nude.

June let out a choked laugh. “I did not need to see my brother’s ass this close up.”

“So I guess going to join them is out of the question?” Nora asked.

“I’ve a feeling that they wouldn’t want that,” Pez said.

“No? Why not, we’re all friends.”

“Well do you _see_ them?”

Nora turned to look at the lake again. “Yeah, I see what you mean, that does not look like a place for us to go.”

“I think that if I don’t leave it will be a major breach of sibling privacy,” June said. “Like, right now.”

She turned around, dragging Nora with her. Nora took a glance over her shoulder as she let herself be dragged. 

She led the way back to the house, halting suddenly just past the fire pit. “Hey, can we light a fire?”

“Absolutely,” Pez said, immediately returning to the woods to collect branches.

“Do I tell him that we have firewood and kindling right here?” June whispered to Nora.

“Only once he comes back and sees that we already have a fire going.”

They scrambled to get their fire set up, Nora shoving enough tabloid pages under the logs that the fire could have been forgiven for refusing to start for lack of air. June sat on the stone bench, a ring encircling the firepit, giving her space to work. 

When Pez came back, he was holding only a couple handfuls of medium-sized sticks. “What’s this? You let me go traipse through the woods for nothing?” He sat down on the stone bench across from June. “That’s okay. They can be S’mores sticks.”

“I… don’t think we have marshmallows,” June said. “Or graham crackers.”

“Ah that’s fine. The fun part is lighting stuff on fire, anyway.” He stuck the tip of one of his sticks in the flames, turning it like a rotisserie spit.

“Toss me one,” Nora said. 

She caught it smoothly, and started poking the logs with it, rearranging them for optimal light and heat. 

June watched them both, firelight flickering on their faces. Nora was studying the flames, occasionally turning a log over, or poking more small twigs into the fire. Pez would light his stick on fire, bring it up to blow it out, and then, once the smoke dissipated, do it all over again. 

She got up and walked over to his side of the circle and sat down on the ground in front of him. She rested her head on his knees, and leaned back to look at him. He responded by leaving his stick in the fire, letting it become another piece of kindling for Nora to mess with, and running his fingers through her hair.

She let out a soft sigh. “Nora, come over here.” She spread her arms wide, inviting Nora to sit between her legs. 

For a while, they all sat there in silence, huddled in their bubble of warmth. When the fire started to dim, Pez stood up to add the sticks he collected to it, and then joined them on the ground. 

“We haven’t seen Henry and Alex come back yet,” Nora said. “They’ve been down there for a long time.”

“Energies are heightened during a full moon,” June said. “Maybe they’re feeling that.”

“If they come, they come,” Pez said. “I love them both, but I’m enjoying this time with the two of you. It’s calm. We’re usually too many people to be so calm.”

“I think it’s more that none of us are particularly good at being calm,” Nora said. She turned so she could rest her head in his lap, one arm still on June’s criss-crossed legs. 

“Mhm.” 

Nora let her eyes fall shut, soaking in the warmth of the fire and her friends. June and Pez kept talking, but she let their words fade into the blackness of the night. She moved them into the background of her mind, where they mixed with the sounds of the crackling fire and feeling of Pez’s soft breathing. And there, she drifted off to sleep.

The night, for now, was calm.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much to xslytherclawx for beta-ing!


End file.
